Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the House on January 22, 2009, to prohibit a local government from issuing bonds to construct, improve, or finance improvements to industrial buildings unless the beneficiary promises not to knowingly hire illegal aliens, and to make a good faith effort to only hire Michigan residents and use Michigan suppliers and vendors, and complies with the state “prevailing wage” law, which prohibits awarding contracts to contractors who submit the lowest bid unless the contractor pays so-called "prevailing wages" based on union pay scales in a particular part of a geographic region, rather than market rates. Violators could have their tax breaks revoked and be required to repay all or part of those already used. Tax break recipients would have to report annually to the Michigan Strategic Fund board on the number of residents employed by the beneficiaries of these bonds and tax breaks, and their "good faith efforts" to comply with the employee residency and related mandates

The vote was 75 in favor, 32 opposed and 3 not voting

(House Roll Call 50 at House Journal 0)

Click here to view bill details.

 

Senator Prusi, under his constitutional right of protest (Art. 4, Sec. 18), protested against the passage of House Bill Nos. 4092 and 4094.

Senator Prusi’s statement is as follows:

There is an old and much-beloved hymn call “Amazing Grace,” and one of the lines is quite applicable to my friends on the other side of the aisle, where it goes on to say, “I once was blind but now I see.” I think it is very applicable in this case because the Senate Democrats, as you have pointed out, have been agitating and urging this body to deal with the Hire Michigan First package for a long time. I am pleased that the Senate majority has finally seen fit to take up one of the major priorities of this caucus and one of the priorities of working families here in Michigan.

I am not quite as pleased at the weakening of the provisions in House Bill Nos. 4092 and 4094. You have weakened the provisions that protect the wages and the jobs here in Michigan. We have had a long tradition here in Michigan of fairness as it applies to jobs and the wages that are paid on these jobs when they are jobs under state contracts. These wage provisions were left out of these two bills, and because that is an important facet of this program, at least it is important to myself, I reluctantly cast “no” votes on both of these bills. But I do applaud the Senate majority for having the scales lifted from their eyes, the blindness cured, and the vision to see that Hire Michigan First was indeed a good package of bills, as we have said for quite some time here.